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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

BOOK REVIEW - TUESDAY FLIRTATIONS - Abuse (Abuse #1)

I'm sure a lot of us download free romance novels to read because there are SO very many of them out there. And then the little guys breed like rabbits in our eReaders. Why don't we share our reviews/impressions so we can find the best ones to read?

Rules:
1. Read a free romance book (this was started for legally free eBooks, but you can count anything gifted, borrowed, ARC, etc!)
2. Review it on your blog. If you can and it's still available, share the link to the free book.
3. Link back here by using the code below.
4. Leave your link to the specific blog post (NOT your main site) in a comment on the recent week's TF post or via the linky.
5. Delight in reading reviews by real people who's likes/dislikes you can compare to and thus find a romance you most likely will enjoy :D

Cliffhanger: yes, but you know it’s gonna happen like halfway through the book so you’re ready for it

Genre: romance, erotica, abuse

Dates Read: July 18-22, 2015

Official Blurb: Bonjour, my name is André Chevalier. It has been my joy and my great honor to help those who have lost their way. Not long after I began my journey, I met two such wounded souls.

Renata Koreman, my little mouse. She came to me as a child—shy, mute, injured… broken. It took oh-so many years to start to bring her back to herself! Yet, I could not fully heal her.

Years later, Grant Wilkinson, he too fell into my hands. The ex-Army Ranger was badly disfigured and saw himself as a monster. Isolated by secrets, solitary and self-contained, his colleagues affectionately named him ‘Frosty.’ Yet, how should one behave when besieged by a lifetime of confusion and guilt?

The moment I saw him, I thought of her and I wondered. The eyes, they cannot always see clearly. And the heart? Ah, the heart can only guess at the truth. So it was that I remained uncertain.

Could the mouse and the monster heal each other?

The blurb felt like almost any other romance novel, but the fact that Grant sounds like a tortured hero was what made me get this. Reading the whole thing though, wow. It is so much more! The quality of writing is very good, and the way the plot moves through scenes is smooth and unhurried but not overly drawn out. On a pure literary basis, this is a damn nice novel!

Grant got my attention from the beginning. He is a lovely tortured hero who doesn’t pity himself, he honestly hates himself and feels sorry for others having to be around him. His introspection is fabulous in his chapters. You can really hear his inner voice, and when someone says something leading, you can feel his “Oh shit” thoughts before you read them. The author did a great job making Grant real, easy to relate to, and damn sympathetic without being piteous. You really see him grow throughout this book, and not backtrack unless there’s a good reason.

Really, the only thing that dropped the score was the dichotomy of Renata. She is introduced as ‘a little mouse’ and though yes, she has helped herself get better, her interactions with Grant are often insanely full of confidence and are not 100% reflective of her inner thoughts. Grant feels better about himself, yet he still does unconscious/habitual things to hide his shame, and his actions show that he’s almost timid when it comes to certain things. Renata doesn’t have this as much. Then again, Renata has a head start, but I don’t know why her thoughts make her seem more fragile than she is. Hopefully this levels out in the next book but even if it doesn’t, I am totally going to read it!

Andre was adorable and fascinating, I am eager to later read more of the novels with him in them. I was thrown off by Stan’s chapters but then as you see how his story connects, you want to see what happens in his storyline. He had rather a decent sex scene too, heh. Grant’s mother and sister sound horrid, and I hope the next novel has more with Alex, especially when you consider some stuff that Grant tells Andre.

The sex is well done, with a good lead up and after-stuff, which a lot of romance novels will lack. It wasn’t superbly steamy, but it got the point across quite well. I can’t wait for these two to have more sex with one of them being more into the idea that this time around *wink wink nudge nudge*.